The Challenger rests after running up from Denver, before a trip out east the following morning with the "Missouri River Eagle" special. There were no large crowds this brisk September ... (more)

Stuck in Kingsport...Frustration has set-in for the UP Steam Crew Member leaning out of the cab window of Clinchfield Challenger 676, aka UP 3985. While attempting to turn the engine on the wye, t... (more)

Clinchfield Challenger 676, aka Union Pacific 3985, simmers in the yard at Kingsport TN while a pair of NS GP38-2s pass by. The Challenger has been brought east to celebrate the 50th anniversary... (more)

The "Clinchfield 676" (UP 3985) is deadheading down the old C&O Big Sandy on its way to Kingsport, Tennessee for the 50th anniversary running of the Santa Claus Special.

Following its rescue from display adjacent to the passenger depot in Cheyenne, UP 3985 was restored for service. In March of 1981 it made its first test run on the mainline - handling a short cons... (more)

One Last Look

As Rocky Mountain Railroad Club’s 1985 Denver-Laramie round trip clears the wye at Speer Junction, Wyoming, Challenger 3985 heads for the barn. The classic 4-6-6-4 ... (more)

Rocky Mountain railroad Club’s 1985 Denver-Laramie round trip approaches the end of the steam powered portion of the itinerary as Union Pacific Challenger 3985 approaches Speer Junction, Wyoming... (more)

A Union Pacific excursion train rolls by as Challenger 3985 executes a run-by at Lone Tree Fill, Wyoming. Patrons line the area along the tracks at one of about a dozen run-bys scheduled for this ... (more)

As seen during the North Platte Rail Days which featured visiting Big Boy #4014.

#3985 is leading the circus train into Denver.

My great, great uncle Robert F. McKee, Sr., was a design engineer at Baldwin and he would give my father different Baldwin Locomotive Works builder's cards when my father would visit him in Collin... (more)

#3985 is pulling away, quickly, from a servicing stop in Lodgepole. This would be the last mainline trip for it along with her boss, Steve Lee, who would call it a day as well.

From the files of "won't happen again", #3985 is seen pulling the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus Blue Unit to Denver. Certainly now a once-in-a-lifetime event for me.

From the files of "won't happen again", #3985 is seen pulling the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus Blue Unit to Denver. Certainly now a once-in-a-lifetime event for me.

#3985 is departing Cheyenne on the first day of the Missouri River Eagle trip....which turned out to be its last mainline outing. No messing around, they were doing every MPH they could muster.